Castle Wolfenstein

Castle Wolfenstein
Cover art by John Benson
Developer(s)	Muse Software
Publisher(s)	Muse Software
Designer(s)	Silas Warner
Programmer(s)	Silas Warner Dale Gray George Varndell
Artist(s)	John Benson
Series	Wolfenstein
Platform(s)	Apple II Atari 8-bit Commodore 64 MS-DOS
Release	Apple II NA: September 1981 Atari 8-bit NA: 1982 Commodore 64 NA: 1983 MS-DOS NA: 1984
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player

Castle Wolfenstein is a 1981 action-adventure game developed by Silas Warner for the Apple II and published by Muse Software in 1981. It is one of the earliest games based on stealth mechanics. A port to Atari 8-bit computers was released in 1982, followed by Commodore 64 (1983) and MS-DOS (1984). The player takes the role of an Allied prisoner of war during World War II who held captive in the fictional Castle Wolfenstein. After escaping from a cell, the player's objective is to find the Nazis' secret war plans and escape from the castle. Nazi soldiers can be dealt with via impersonation, sneaking, or killing.

Warner was inspired by the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone and the 1980 arcade video game Berzerk. The 60 room castle is procedurally generated.

Castle Wolfenstein was received positively amongst critics and became one of the best-selling games of the early 1980s. It is considered to have had a direct influence on modern stealth games. The game was praised for its graphics, and gameplay, but criticized for its long waiting times when opening chests.